If the coronavirus pandemic confirmed anything about Big Pharma, it was that the business model of the pharmaceutical industry is brd on unrelenting and unapologetic profiteering. Corporations seek to leverage their access to research by public institutions, their connections with oversight agencies, and their influence on politics to assure that they can maximize their windfalls. It’s not a pretty picture. So it will come as no surprise that the pharmaceutical giants would prefer that their business practices not be examined or debated. In particular, they want to avoid sharp scrutiny from public health activists, consumer advocates, and campaigners for access to safe-and-affordable vaccines and medications.

This is the harsh and constant reality, no matter which party controls the White House and the Congress, no matter who runs the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, no matter who is calling the shots at the World Health Organization.

Just last week, the drug giant Moderna was scrambling to explain away concerns about its plans to quadruple the price for its Covid-19 vaccine, from $26 per dose to $110–130 per dose. “I would think,” claimed Moderna CEO Stephane Bancel,“this type of pricing is consistent with the value.”

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Maaza Seyoum, Global South convener of the People’s Vaccine Alliance, expressed concern about allegations that suggest the pharmaceutical industry and government allies—particularly in Germany—“tried to silence legitimate criticism during a crisis.” Lori Wallach, the veteran fair trade campaigner, reviewed the latest reports and warned that Big Pharma lobbyists and corporations giants, through “their greedy monopoly control of medicines,” have caused needless deaths and pushed people around the world further into poverty.

“They will go to any length to increase their profits,” says Wallach, the director of the Rethink Trade program at the American Economic Liberties Project, of the pharmaceutical giants.

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